The Reporter.com March 19, 2003
Travis poised; no upgrade in security yet
By Jason Massad
Reporter Staff
In contrast to the whirlwind at Travis Air Force Base on 9-11, today was business as usual at the base.
Cars and delivery trucks filtered onto the base at a normal clip, after being screened by Army troops wielding M-16s. The David Grant Medical Center was open for business.
America's strike in the waning hours Wednesday wasn't deemed enough of a security problem to raise the threat level from "Bravo," the threat condition at the base pretty consistently since 9-11.
Elevating to "Charlie," which would bar non-essential personnel from the base among tighter security measures, would come straight from the Department of Defense. That call never came, said Lt. Angela Arredondo, a Travis spokesperson.
"Really it's business as usual," she said.
Officials at the air base are always tight lipped about current operations there, and today was no different. They acknowledged, however, that the 'operations tempo' at the base has remained consistent with the build up to war in the Persian Gulf.
In all of Air Mobility Command, in which Travis Air Base hosts the largest wing of C-5 transports and KC-10 refeulers, some one-half million troops have been transported to Central Command, the moniker for the American military force in the Middle East.
The command has moved one million tons of equipment and supplies, including items such as Black Hawk helicopters and ordnance, as well as the fuel, tents and water it takes to set up overseas bases. In the buildup to war, the command performed 4,000 refueling missions for U.S.-led coalition aircraft.
Travis has also been a launching point for area deployments. Hundreds of base personnel and area Army and Air Force reserves are estimated to be deployed to the Persian Gulf.
The base's KC-10 squadrons are currently stationed in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, according to globalsecurity.org. C-5 transports are some of the main backstage movers of cargo to points like Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean that serves as a staging area for the Middle East.
For now, it's too early to tell what some of the family members of those deployed are feeling. One unit member at the base, who could not to be identified, said he and his unit were on alert in their own way.
"We're all glued to the television set, of course," he said.
Jason Massad can be reached at county@thereporter.com.
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